“You’re supposed to end on something that was inevitable, yet you didn’t see it coming. We were shooting for that here,” executive producer Aaron Korsh tells TVGuide.com. “Hopefully people find it satisfying and surprising a little bit.”

After Louis, who can’t bring clients with him, rejects two jobs Harvey (Gabriel Macht) gets him — including one in Boston because Sheila (Rachael Harris) wouldn’t take him back — Mike, feeling indebted to Louis, hooks him up with Rachel’s (Meghan Markle) dad Robert Zane (Wendell Pierce). Robert promises to make Louis a senior partner if he brings one client from Pearson Specter. With some help from Katrina (Amanda Schull), Louis poaches drug company VersaLife, only for Mike and Harvey to convince Gillis (Michael Gross) to buy a division of VersaLife so Pearson Specter can keep it.

Just when it seems like all hope is lost for Louis, he angrily confronts Donna (Sarah Rafferty) and Jessica (Gina Torres) at the office. He knows Mike is a fraud. He unknowingly showed his hand when he dropped off Louis’ stuff, asking not once but twice for Louis to tell him about an old-fashioned key. That key is part of the induction into the Order of the Coif, Harvard’s honor society. Had Mike graduated magna cum laude as he claims, he would know what it is. Oops. But Jessica calls Louis’ bluff. He doesn’t want to see her fry otherwise he would’ve notified authorities already. What does he want?

“Pearson Specter Litt,” he says.

“The ending … you may like it, you may not like it or how it unfolds, but it definitely packs a punch. And we wanted to pack a punch,” Korsh says. “It’s the culmination of everything that’s been happening in the entirety of the episode and over the past year. … Last year, we felt our way through and what emerged was the consequences of Louis looking into Mike touched off on him leaving. … We planted the seeds if you look back and it’s been building to this. It makes sense.”

Nevertheless, Korsh admits he wasn’t on board at first with one aspect of the set-up for Louis’ dramatic confrontation. “When [the writers] first pitched it, I didn’t love that he was going to get fired period because, hey, he helped us get out of this jam,” he says, referring to Louis realizing that SEC head Woodall (Zeljko Ivanek) was in cahoots with Forstman (Eric Roberts). But he realized that, in order for Louis’ resignation and the finale to work and have optimal impact, Louis had to have a pink slip waiting and be at odds with Jessica.

“If he were just to resign without them wanting to fire him, they would hire him back and we wouldn’t be where we are now!” Korsh says. “You couldn’t have one without the other. I ended up saying, ‘Let’s let Harvey come around.’ Louis means well and always puts the firm before himself, but he has made a lot of mistakes. We just thought it was very moving that Jessica took a stand and we thought that she would [fire him].”

But will Jessica make Louis’ demand (and dreams) come true — not to mention, save herself — by making him a name partner? Does she even have a choice? “We’re going to take that head-on when we come back,” Korsh says, adding that they’re just only breaking stories for the first three episodes of the remaining six of Season 4. “One thing I always want to do is see things through and deal with the consequences. When Mike left, we didn’t come back and see that Mike changed his mind, so we don’t shy away from this. We’re going to pick up pretty close to directly after [the finale] and see all the reactions and reverberations.”

As Korsh & Co. are plotting out the currently “amorphous” back six episodes, they also have to figure out the next step for Mike and Rachel. Though Mike is giving Rachel another chance after she kissed Logan (Brendan Hines), it’s not all water under the bridge yet.

“We didn’t touch on them in the finale … but it’s going to rear its head again and that’s part of the healing process. They’re together now, but you just don’t forget something like that,” Korsh says. “She made a mistake; she’s a human being. Sometimes I read a few tweets and I think, ‘I wonder what percentage of the people who are so vehemently angry have never made any mistake ever,’ and it’s nowhere near close to 100 percent. So it would be nice if they would judge her a little less harshly. Part of the reason we threw it in there is it’s drama. What we tried to do was get the emotion of one of them being unfaithful. It could’ve been a lot worse.”

Rachel’s brush with infidelity was just one of the divisive story lines this season — the other being Mike’s venture into investment banking. Korsh, however, has no regrets. “It was an intense year and will get even more intense now,” he says. “What happens is you make your choice and for good or bad, you must follow through on your choice. That’s what serialized storytelling is. You have to stop worrying about whether it’s the right choice. You have to execute it and see it through to its conclusion.”

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